Hi Crow,
I hope you didn't take offense, I was just wanting to state my experience. Analog phones are quite bulky and annoying on a Norstar system. All of the complex codes and sequences were the exact reason most users updated to the simplicity of the Norstar phones in the 1990s from bulky old Key systems by Tie or Lanier.
Good case study:
When TJ Maxx stores started replacing their old Aiphone/1A2 phones to TIE "Monitor" systems in the mid 1980s, they only used digital phones for the main service desk. They used Analog phones for the rest of the store....actually Bell Trim Line black old school phones.
When TJX updated to the Nortel Norstar route around 1990, they tried to mimic the same setup with the Norstar digital sets at the service desk, layaway, jewelry and sales floor, but at the registers they used the Northern Telecom "Symphony" analog sets. I assume these became too problematic and too complicated to use, plus the additional expense of having to purchase an ATA for each register, so they went with the M7100 sets around 1995....which in turn made all phones digital and easy to use.
Just my 2 cents.
Joe